I've been practising inserting and removing new plastic 4x5 film holders and a Polaroid 550 back in my new/old view camera (a Graphic View II).
With all the gentleness I can muster, I still have the feeling that the camera could easily be jolted out of focus by this operation, such is the 'clunkiness' of of the sprung-back mechanism when pushing in the film holder (yes, I've tried all the variations of lifting and pushing it gently past the locating ridge, etc.).
The springs and everything else seem to be in good operating order. I ran a small amount of light machine oil between the spring's coils, which lessened some friction there and smoothed the operation a bit, but the huge tension and resulting friction doesn't lend itself at all to delicate operation. (I might try a touch of silicon lube on the sliding surfaces next, I think.)
Is this a common complaint? Why wasn't the Graflock back design improved such that the back could be fully opened at once, say, by a single lever, sufficiently to allow interference-free insertion of the film holder? (Probably because it was originally just a press camera feature -- wham, bam, thank you ma'm!)
Sorry to be such an upstart, but I hate to spend all that time setting up only to be cringing in anticipation of throwing things out of whack again so easily.
Has anyone not noticed this? Is there a solution? (Maybe I'm completely missing something ...hmm, this could be embarassing!)
Thanks
Dave
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